August 9, 2022 Black Canyon of the Gunnison

 

Tuesday August 9, 2022  Black Canyon

I got to meet new humans and they called me a mascot and said they had mascots they wanted me to meet.  I met them and smelled them but they were shy and didn’t want to interact.

My morning walk took me around the neighborhood.  We are on the cusp between a business area and residential area.  I walked past the Elks where we stayed last time.  We would have stayed there again but our friends (Brian and Kathy) are having a little trouble with their rig and needed to have all the hookups so we decided to join them.  In winding my way around, I saw quite a few homes with these beautiful hibiscus plants.  They must like the cold.  Hmmm, I wonder if they would do ok in our climate…  NOOOO! Save me from myself!

When I got back, we readied Hannah for her next journey.  We are headed to Gunnison.   They are doing road construction on Hwy 50 so we can expect the 50 mile trip to take quite a while with the delays.  Last year, we took a detour on hwy. 92, which is a tiny road that winds through the mountains.  Not ideal for towing but it is a beautiful drive.  This year, we are going to tough it out through the construction.

On to Hwy 50 we go.  We aren’t 10 miles down the road when we see the sign for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  We know we can’t take Hannah on those roads, so we disconnected her at a rest stop, threw Rudy inside and headed out. 

Black Canyon was formed over millions of years by the Gunnison River and the twisting and torquing of the earth’s surface.  It is rugged, steep and beautiful.  The steep cannot be captured in pictures.  We stopped at several of the viewpoints, then took the other road… the one down to the river.  Did I mention ‘steep’?  The road down to the river is a 16% grade.  That is NOT a typo!  SIXTEEN percent!  That is first gear for 6 miles and the exhaust brake curving down a nicely paved road.  WHEEEEE!  At the end is a dam and a campground.  I walked down and tested the water… brrrrr it was cold!  Then we got to go up the grade!

We totally enjoyed the spur of the moment diversion, but time to get back to Hannah and Rudy.  Plus, we didn’t pack a lunch and we were hungry!  And Rudy was pissed…wouldn’t make eye contact. 

Back on the road, we headed east on hwy 50.  The landscape is a strange mix of high desert scrub, and then some pines and aspens, but mostly high desert.  WE climb over Cerro Summit although it is still high desert, there is lots of green.  We climb some more and weave our way till we hit the road construction.  We only had to wait about 20 minutes or so before we were escorted through the construction field which was about 5 miles long.  Blasting away mountains, widening the road, re paving.  It is quite an undertaking.

At the Blue Mesa Reservoir, we were set free from the pilot car… except the car in front of the crowd had issues with the gas pedal.  For us towing, it took about 10 miles before we could pass the old guy! 

The Blue Mesa Reservoir is several miles long.  Here is this beautiful glassy lake, and we did not see one boat.  What don’t we know?  It is a warmish day, in the 80s, and calm.  Somebody should be out there!  There are no trees for miles, at least until the lake disappears and the river that feeds it appears.  A few pines but it turns more green as we get to Gunnison.

We hook up with Jake and Lynn at the Palisades Rv park.  I think they like playing Skyjo with us because they know they will win…  that won’t last forever tho…